About this item
Passionate okra lovers crave this bright green, heat-loving vegetable, whether fried, grilled, steamed, roasted, boiled, broiled, pickled, raw, whole, sliced, or julienned. With Okra, Virginia Willis provides the key that unlocks the door of okra desire to okra addicts and newcomers to the pod alike. Topping eight feet, with gorgeous butter-yellow flowers that ripen into the plants signature seed-filled pods, okra has a long association with foodways in the American South. But as Willis shows, okra is also an important ingredient in cuisines across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Featuring gardening tips, a discussion of heirloom varieties, and expert cooking directions including a list of top ten slime-busting tips, Okra brilliantly showcases fifty delectable recipes twenty-six southern dishes, ranging from Southern-Style Fried Okra to Gulf Coast Seafood Gumbo, and twenty-four authentic global dishes, from Moroccan Lamb and Okra Tagine with Preserved Lemons to Cuban Pork with Yellow Rice, Okra, and Annatto Oil.
About the Author
Virginia Willis is the author of the acclaimed cookbook, Bon Appétit, Y'all! Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking (Ten Speed Press, 2008) . Her latest book, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company (Ten Speed Press, 2011) was rated as one of the top rated cookbooks of 2011. Virginia was also recently named by the Chicago Tribune as one of "Seven Food Writers You Need to Know. "A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, she previously she honed her attention to detail as the Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living Television where she supervised the food segments for the Emmy-award winning television show. With MSLTV, Virginia was also responsible for preparing private meals and events for Martha and her guests -- including among others, President Clinton, Aretha Franklin, and Julia Child. As Executive Producer for Epicurious on The Discovery Channel, she traveled the world taping fantastic stories about food - from harvesting capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano to making authentic mustard in Dijon. Virginia's wide and varied food career started in Atlanta as an apprentice to Nathalie Dupree. She worked with Dupree on four PBS series and cookbooks, including the James Beard award- winning Comfortable Entertaining. She also spent several years as an editorial assistant with culinary authority Anne Willan on various projects including Cook It Right, an exhaustive tome that documents the various states of "doneness" (and over- and under-"doneness") of everything from whipped cream to braised pheasant. She is a featured chef in Atlanta Cooks at Home, was a tester and editor for The All-New Joy of Cooking, author of Pasta Dinners 1,2,3, and co-author of Home Plate Cooking. She has been featured in House Beautiful, The Chicago Tribune, and ABCnews. com. She is a contributing editor to Southern Living and her writing has been published in Country Living, Family Fun, and Taste of the South. She has appeared on Real Simple Television, Martha Stewart Living Television, Paula Deen's Best Dishes, and in TV commercials for Duke's Mayonnaise. As a nationally recognized culinary professional, her client list includes Calphalon, Char-Broil, The Coca Cola Company, Fresh Express, Olive Garden, and Whole Foods Market. Virginia is on Atlanta Community Food Bank Advisory Board. She is a past president of the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier, a member of Georgia Organics, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Southern Foodways Alliance, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, and the American Institute of Wine and Food.
